The Dark Side of the Tide
by TheSleepingFox
Summary: A story about a trainer who encounters Darkrai. All the way from the Cressailia event to the Harbor Inn.
1. Canalave City

Chapter 1: Canalave City

**Chapter 1: Canalave City**

"Ahh, Canalave City" Maria sighed with relief and joy of having just reached her destination.

At midday, Canalave City was a bustling metropolis filled with sailors, fishermen and the occasional bargain hunters. After walking a few blocks, Maria arrived at the town's Pokemon Center.

While waiting for Nurse Joy to heal her Pokemon, Maria asked if she could get a room for three days. Nurse Joy immediately responded by saying in her usual cheerful voice, "of course you may have a room here for three days, just as long as you don't mind other trainers now and then."

Maria replied by saying "it's perfectly all right, considering this is a Pokemon Center and all."

After her Pokemon were healed, Maria was given the key card to her room. Maria put her Pokeballs back on her belt and held her key down at her side. When she got to the second floor, she began searching for her room; "two eighteen, two eighteen, ah found it." She exclaimed as she put the key into its slot. The little light on the door flashed green and she entered her room.

It was your average room at a Pokemon Center; a comfortable looking twin bed, a bathroom with a shower, a TV on a stand directly across from the bed and a desk for writing and eating at.

However there was one little detail that seemed out of the ordinary in this room, next to the sliding glass door to the balcony overlooking the sea, was a long tall mirror. Maria walked over to it to examine herself "That's weird, why would there be a mirror like this in the room" she said to no one in particular.

Maria was about 5'4", had long blonde hair down to her waist and kept it out of her eyes with a green headband, wore a short sleeve green hoody with the white outline of a Pokeball on it, a white ruffled jean skirt and brown leather adventurer style boots** (A/N: Think of the boots Link from the Legend of Zelda wore in Twilight Princess)**.

After a few hours of lounging and watching TV, Maria felt hungry. She checked her Poketch to see what time it was and saw that it was 6:10 p.m. She left her Pokemon in her room to go get some food to bring back up to her room.

While she was in the elevator, she overheard two sailors talking in the corner of the elevator.

"Did you hear what happened to Eldritch's son" said the more muscular of the two sailors.

"Yeah, I heard about the nightmares and stuff, funny thing is though, no one's seen this sickness in around fifty years" said the leaner, taller sailor.

Maria was rather curious about this and spoke up to the two sailors; "Excuse me", the two sailors looked over at her, "I'm sorry to bother you, but who was that boy you two were talking about, the one you said was having the nightmares"?

The taller of the two sailors replied: "that boy is the son of Sailor Eldritch, one of the most honored sailors in Canalave City".


	2. Nightmares in Daytime

Chapter 2: Nightmares in Daytime

**A/N: I'm really sorry it took so long to update. I guess I just sort of lost interest for awhile.**

**Chapter 2: Nightmares in Daytime**

Maria stood in front of Sailor Eldritch's house. "Yup, this is the place the sailors told me about" Maria thought out loud.

Maria approached the door somewhat hesitantly and knocked on the door, after about thirty seconds; a rather short woman wearing an apron opened the door. "Yes?" the woman answered in slightly weary tone.

"Hello ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you but, someone told me your son has been having nightmares lately".

The woman looked at Maria somewhat fearfully and strangely and said "yes that's right, have they found a cure yet", the women's face became rather frantic at this and Maria looked slightly scared.

"No, I don't think so, but would it be alright if I just took a look at him for a few minutes"

"Oh of course, of course, please come in"

The woman sidestepped so that she was standing inside the house, allowing Maria more room to step inside. The house on the inside was a reasonably average house not big like some of the buildings in Jubilife City, but not as small as the houses in Twinleaf Town either.

Echoing in the house somewhere were loud screams. "This way" the woman said. She led Maria down a hallway and stopped at a bedroom door." This is our son's room". As she opened the door she heard someone screaming behind it. Maria peered around the room and saw that it was your average 7 year old boy's room: toys cluttered on the floor, pictures of various Pokemon on the walls and a desk and bedside table.

However, it was what was inside the bed that was distinctly out of place: there was a little boy thrashing around in the bed, his face was all scrunched up like he was in pain and he was sweating all over.

"Wha-what's happened to him" Maria asked in horror. "He's having nightmares, terrible ones. We've tried everything to cure him: psychic Pokemon, professional doctors and even an exorcist, but no one could figure out what was wrong with him".

Maria looked down at the thrashing scared boy in the bed with a tear in her eye. After about thirty seconds he began to mumble something: "Dark… Dark… is watching me" This didn't strike Maria as too odd, people talked in their sleep all the time. But the way he said it had a slight edge to it, as if he were trying to communicate with the outside world and was failing to do so. "Who's 'Dark…'" Maria asked softly. Mrs. Eldritch turned to her and said "we're not sure, no one has been able to find out anything as of yet".

Maria pondered this for a moment and then said "what if I helped look for information"? "Oh you don't need to do that" said Mrs. Eldritch humbly. "No really it would be my pleasure to help out". With that Maria walked out of the room down the hall and out the door.


	3. The Library

**A/N: Another chapter after such a long time, sorry bout that guys. Also I hid a Twilight Princess reference in here somewhere, Lava Cookies to whoever can spot it.**

**Chapter 3: The Library**

Having just walked out the door of Sailor Eldritch's house; Maria began to ponder about what to do about the screaming boy. "Hmmm, a sleeping boy who won't wake up." After walking for a little while, she stopped and said "oh duh, where else to go to look for information but Canalave's library!"

Being right in front of the gym, the library was just around the block. Maria entered the building with a determined look on her face, went up to the counter and asked; "hi, um where could I find books on Canalave's history and a collection of Sinnoh myths?" The librarian answered in a rather bored yet helpful voice; "on the second and third floors in that order." "Thank you ma'am." Maria said politely. After ascending one flight of stairs, Maria came into the floor of the library which housed difficult books, as well as tables for people to read at. "Lets see where to start." Maria said to herself quietly.

She walked along the rows of bookcases hoping to find something of benefit. After looking for over twenty minutes, Maria finally found a book called "_Canalave: A History from Beginning to Now_". "Finally, now, up to the third floor." Maria said as she grabbed the book off the shelf. She then quickly ascended the next flight of stairs, in hopes of finding anything in the old myths that would relate to the boy's mysterious sickness.

At last after looking on the last bookshelf Maria found an old weathered book that was titled in faded gold lettering; "_Black Magick and Sicknesses of Olde_". "This is perfect, it's bound to have some kind of cure or at least an analysis." With that said, she tucked the two books under her arm, and walked swiftly down the stairs. After she had descended to the first floor, she went over to the librarian's desk, set the books down and said; "I'd like to check these books out please." Maria said with a light smile on her face. The librarian looked at the books, and gave her an odd look as if to say; "what would such a nice girl like you be doing with books like these." After she was done scanning them, the librarian handed her the books and Maria said, "thank you, again ma'am". She tucked the books into her messenger bag, and made her way out of the library and onto the pathway. She for the first time noticed how late it had gotten, the sun had almost set behind the clouds. She smirked, she had always loved the twilight hour, the orange glow that seemed to pass over the world, the feeling of the mixture of light and darkness, as well as the feeling of saddness that seemed to radiate from the setting sun.

As Maria was making her way back to the Pokemon Center, she became aware of a slight whispering on the wind's breath, "the two islands...two Pokemon...bound together." Maria just shrugged this off as just hearing things, she assured herself. She walked into the Pokemon Center feeling reassured. "Soon, that boy'll be out of bed and full of life again." She headed up the elevator, down the hallway, and unlocked the door to her room. She let her Prinplup and her Honchcrow out of their Pokeballs, swung off her shoulder bag, took the two books out and flopped down on the bed and began reading.

While she was reading, Maria discovered some rather gruesome facts: the dreams the boy had weren't the first, in fact many children in the past had experienced similar symptoms, the patients would suffer in their nightmares before dying from lack of nourishment, the few that had survived the ordeal were never the same again, and the only known cure seemed to be a Lunar Wing from Fullmoon Island. Maria shuddered to herself as she reread the notes she'd taken. " Uh, ghastly." She said, mystified by the information she'd taken in. "Well, at least now I know." Maria yawned and looked at the clock, it was well past midnight. She quickly changed out of her clothes, and into her pajama's and crawled under the covers, her Prinplup asleep next to her, and her Honchcrow roosting at the edge of the bed. "Big day tomorrow" Maria said to herself sleepily as she drifted into unconciousness.


	4. MOMMY!

**A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever, I've been busy with school and getting any chance I can to sleep in on the weekends. I'd just like to give a little warning that this chapter will be a bit darker than some of the others we've seen so far(due to some nightmares Maria's gonna have of her own).**

_Italics = dream_

Chapter 4: Mommy!

_Maria ran swiftly into her house with her parents away from the people who wanted to destroy them for supposed treason . _

_Once they were inside the house, while they were in the kitchen, her father turned to her mother and hurriedly said "Rose, you have to listen to me, take Maria with you and get out of here I don't know how long I can hold them off". Rosalie Ashwood tearfully shook her head no. "ROSE I SAID TAKE MARIA AND GO"! Hayden Ashwood said forcefully. _

_Rosalie, at this point clutching Maria to her, gave one final nod to her husband and pulled out a poke ball. Out of the poke ball, popped a Xatu. "Xatu, use Light Screen to camouflage us" Rosalie said with a heavy heart. As soon as she spoke these words, a wall of altering light appeared in front of them, making the mother and child invisible to the outside world. _

_Suddenly, a crash was heard from below the stairs. The door had been broken down. From behind the wall of light Maria heard a cold cruel voice say "Leaf Blade". A slicing noise was heard, then a scream and then, icy silence. "Maria listen to me, I'm going to go see if I can save dad, whatever happens stay behind the light screen, and remember that I love you". Rosalie took a deep breath and stepped out from the barrier that the light gave._

_Almost immediately after she stepped out of the light screen she was presented with the presence of a man in a blue and gray uniform. _

"_Caught you" he said. "Team Rocket may have gotten your disgusting fool of a husband, but Team Galactic has saved its most deathly punishment for you little girl". By this time Rosalie Ashwood was shaking with fear praying silently in her head that the monsters in her house wouldn't discover the Light Screen._

_By this time the Galactic grunt had pulled out a Glaceon._

_Rosalie was now silently sobbing to herself as the grunt, devoid of any emotion but pleasure said "Glaceon, use Aurora Beam". Rosalie was sobbing. From behind the light screen Maria saw the sphere of glowing multicolored energy forming at the edge of the Glaceon's mouth. _

_Maria was about to burst forth from the Light Screen, when suddenly Xatu opened a small hole in the barrier. Then, just as the Glaceon fired it's Aurora Beam, Xatu unleashed a powerful Psybeam. But instead of hitting the blast of the Aurora Beam and stopping it like it had two years ago, the Psybeam missed and hit Rosalie Ashwood at the same time as the Aurora Beam. "MOMMY"! Maria cried out from behind the Light Screen._

Maria awoke in a cold sweat in her room at the Canalave Pokemon Center. Her eyes were wide with fear and had dark circles under them. "What am I thinking? Mom's at home and Dad's...".

She looked over at the clock on her bedside table: "6:13 A.M. May as well get up and go get some breakfast". She got dressed out of her cobalt blue PJ's and into her regular outfit which the Chansy had been so kind to wash.

"Big day today, gotta go free the little boy, go on a boat and oh whatever"Maria said with a yawn. Though as she walked out the door, she couldn't help but feel uneasy about the dream she had and what it meant.


End file.
